1956-1968 Renault Dauphine

Renault's "princess" -- the 1956 Renault Dauphine -- made her public debut in March 1956, and the
French were enthralled.

Renault kept its conventional "Ventoux" ohc
inline four-cylinder water-cooled engine with removable cylinder
sleeves in the tail, and swathed it all in pretty and curvaceous
bodywork. At 89 inches, its wheelbase was 6.3 inches longer than that
of the 4CV. The Dauphine was a full foot longer end to end, and it was
wider and slightly lower than its predecessor (which hung around until
1961).

The result was a peoples' car that looked much classier than it
was, could swallow an impressive payload of people and luggage, and
would swish along France's tree-lined Routes Nationales at more than 60
mph.

Unhappily for Renault, at that stage, it knew no more than Dr.
Porsche did about controlling tail-heavy swing-axle handling
characteristics. If the heavy engine and gearbox were mounted in the
tail, and most of the front sheetmetal surrounded nothing but fresh air
for carrying luggage, the resulting weight distri­bution was bound to
be scary.

Nearly 62 percent of the Dauphine's weight was carried by the
rear wheels, and since the rear suspension was by simple high-pivot
swing axles, those wheels always had a hard time. Everything you have
heard about Dauphine handling -- the nervous way in which it might pass a
semi on the Interstate, and the skittish way it crossed high exposed
bridges -- was true. Not even a weird combination of recommended tire
pressures --15 psi at the front and 23 psi at the rear -- could completely
tame that problem.

Early road tests in U.S. publications were quite
content with the Dauphine's handling, but by 1960, Motor Trend had this
to say: "There is nothing in the handling at normal speeds to indicate
that the engine is stowed in the rear but push up to some high-speed
cornering and the rear end becomes quite skittish, requiring skilled
control of an oversteer condition that presents itself."